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the study of the bioevolutionary bases of behavior and development

ethology

an evolutionary process, proposed by CHarles Darwin, stating that individuals with characteristics that promote adaption to the enviornment will survive, reproduce, and pass these adaptive characteristics to offspring; those lacking these adaptive characteristics will eventually die out

natural selection

period of time that is optimal for the development of particular capacities, or behaviors, and in which the individual is particularly sensitive to environmental inlfuences that would foster these attributes

sensitive period

a selfless concern for the welfare of others that is expressed through prosocial acts such as sharing, cooperating, comforting others, or helping

altruism

the ability to experience the same emotions that someone else is experiencing

empathy

the scientific study of how genotupe interacts with enviornment to determine behavioral attributes such as intelligence, personality, and mental health

behavior genetics

the genetic endowment that an individual inherits

genotype

the ways in which a person's phenotype is expressed in observable or measurable characteristics

phenotype

the amoung of variability in a trait that is attributable to hereditary factors

heritability

a mothod of studying genetic influences by determining whether traits can be bred in animals through selective mating

selective breeding experiment

the extent to which two individuals have genes in common

kinship

study in which sets of twins that differ in zygosity (kinship) are compared to determine the heritability of an attribute

twin design

study in which adoptees are compared with their biological relatives and their adoptive relatives to estimate the heritability of an attribute

adoption design

the percentage of cases in which a particular attribute is present for one member of a twin pair if it is present for the other

concordance rate

a numerical estimate, ranging from .00 to +1.00, of the amount of variation in an attribute that is due to hereditary factors

heritability coefficient

an environmental influence that people living together do not share and that should makethese individuals different from one another

nonshared environmental influence (NSE)

an environmental influence that people living together share and that should make these individuals similar to one another

shared environmental influence (SE)

the opposite poles of a personality dimension: Introverts are shy, snxious around others, and tend to withdraw from social situations; extroverts are highly sociable and enjoy being with others

introversion/extroversion

a measure of the extent to which an individual recognizes the needs of otehrs and is concerned about their welfare

empathic concern

a serious form of mental illness characterized by disturbances in logical thinking, emotional expression, and interpersonal behavior

schizophrenia

the notion that the rearing environments that biological paretns provide are influence by the parents' own genes, and hence are correlated with the child's own genotype

passive genotype/environment correlations

the notion that our heritable attributes afect others' behavior toward us and thus influence the social environment in which development takes place

evocative genotype/environment correlations

the notion that our genotypes affect the types of environments that we prefer and seek out

active genotype/environment correlations

Bronfenbrenner's model emphasizing that the developing person is embedded in a series of enviornmental systems that interact with one another and with the person to influence development (sometimes called bioecolgical theory)

ecological systems theory

the immediate settings (including role relationships and activities) that the person actually encounters; the innermost of Bronfenbrenner's environmental layers, or contexts

microsystem

the interconnections among an individual's immediate settings, or microsystes; the second of Bronfenbrenner's enviornmental layers, or contexts

mesosystem

social systems that children and adolescents do not directly experience but that may nonetheless influence their development; the third of Bronfenbrenner's enviornmental layers, or contexts

exosystem

the larger cultural or subcultural context in which development occurs; Bronfenbrenner's outermost enviornmental layer, or context

macrosystem

in ecological systems theory, changes in the individual or the enviornment that occur over time and influence the direction development takes

chronosystem

Vygotsky's perspective on development, in which children acquire their culture's values, beliefts, and problem solving strategies through collaborative dialogues with more knowledgable members of society

sociocultural theory

vygotsky's term for methods of thinking and problem-solving strategies that children internalize from their interactions with more competent members of society

tools of intellectual adaption

process of learning or acquiring new skills that occurs as novices particpate in activites under the guidance of a more skillful tutor

collaborative (guided) learning

vygotsky's term from the range of tasks that are too complex to be mastered alone but can be accomplished with guidance and encouragement from a more skillful partner

zone of proximinal development

process by which an expert, when instructing a novice, responds contingently to the novice's behavior in a learning situation, so that the novice gradually increases his or her understanding of a problem

scaffolding

vygotsky's term for the subset of a child's verbal utterances that serve a self-communicative function and guide the child's activities

private speech

internalized private speech; covert verbal thought

inner speech

social-cognitive theory stating that the explanations we construct for social experiences largely determine how we react to those experiences

social information-processing (or attribution) theory

conclustions drawn about the underlying causes of our own or another person's beahvior

causal attributions

a dispositional characteristic that is stable over time and across situation

trait

attributional heuristic implying that actions that a person consistently performs are likely to be internally caused (reflecting a dispositional characteristic)

consistency schema

view of children as passive entities whose developmental paths are primarily dteremined by external (environmental) influences

mechanistic model

view of children as active entities whose developmental paths are primarily determines by forces from within themselves